Process of producing ingot iron and steel



UNlTED STATES PATENT @Tmcn.

JACOB REESE, OF ALLEGHENY, PEFNSYLVANIA.

PROCESS OF PRODUClNG INGOT IRON AND STEEL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 286,087, dated October 2, 1.833.

Application filed March 19, 1883. (No specimens.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, JACOB ltnnsn, a citizen of the United States, residing at Allegheny, in the county ofAllegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful. Improvement in Processes of Producing Ingot iron and Steel; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof. 1

This invention relates to the production of an improved quality of steel not hitherto known in the arts.

Previous to this invention steel, was made by the following processes: Oementation process, in which bars of wrought-iron were interlaid with charcoal in a closed vessel and subjected to a temperature of from 1000 to 1500 Fahrenheit for several days. The product was called blister-steel, which, when .rolled or hammered was known as shearsteel or German steel. All steel madeby the cementation process contained silicon or silica exceeding .013 per cent, and much of it contained .20 of silicon or silica. The second process known in the arts for the production of steel was the puddling process, and the product was known as puddled steel.

This steel contained from .08 to .20 of silicon,

or silicon and-silica. The third process is known as the crucible process, and the analysis of four samples of best tool-steel made by four leading steel-manniacturcrs shows the presence of silicon as follows: .015, :015, .017, .013. The fourth process known is the Bessemer, which produces steel con taining considerable silicon, as the following analysis of twel'ity-four samples of Bessemer rail-steel made at different works shows silicon .00j1,,.030, .068, .056, .074, .030, .0-11, .047, .010, .023, .050, .028, .032, .036, .020, .182, .058, .05, .050, .053, .034, .024, .035, .035,being an average of .04 7. The fifth process for the manufacture of steel is that knowir as the open-hearth process. The silicon in this process ranges from.015 to .200, and is seldom below .035. Silicon is objectionable in steel in any degree. It tends to harden and make the metal. brittle, and for all high grades of tool-steel, and especially for soft weldingsteels, its presence should be avoided, if possible.

phosphorus is eliminated and the metal de oxygenized, ingot iron or steel maybe produced absolutely free from silicon, and in the average of four analyses of different heats there being but a trace of silicon in the resulting metal; and in no case has ingot iron or steel been produced by my inventionwhich has possessed more than .010 of one per cent. of silicon.

My invention may be practiced in a limelined Bessemer converter in the following manner: Molten east-iron is run into the con verter and blown with an air-blast until. the silicon and carbon are eliminated, and the metal then blown in the presence of basic additions until thephosphorus is oxidized and held in the basic additions as a phosphate, the metal then deoxygenized and poured into molds, care being taken that the deoxygenizing agent be as low or as free from silicon as possible. The invention may also be practiced in a lime-limed open hearth, and in the presence of basic or basic calcareous additions, by subjecting the metal to a high heat while in the lime-lined vessel and in the presence of the basic additions until" the silicon, carbon, and phosphorus are eliminated and the metal deoxygenized. The resulting steel will be found to have but a trace of silicon.

The essential conditions for a thorough desiliconization of the metal are: First-,the metal must be subjected to atemperatu re suiiieiently high to keep it continuously in a highly fluid state; secondly, the metal must be surrounded with basic material suflicient to take up the silicic acid formed and hold it as a silicate; third, the silicon in the final additions must not exceed ninety (90) per cent. of the weight of the oxygen to be removed from. the metal. Thus if the metal weigh twenty thousand pounds and contain .035 of oxygen, orseventy pounds, in this case the silicon in the final addition should not,in the absence of manganese, exceed sixty-three pounds. The

sixty-three pounds of silicon would then unite with the seventy pounds oxygen, forming one hundred and thirty-three pounds of silicic acic, '(SiO,,) and the metal be absolutely free from silicon.

By this method the silicic acid formed by ing with oxide of iron or lime as abase, is held 111 the slag as a silicate and what silicon may be present 111 thefinal addition for deoxygenating' will be oxidized and held in the slag as a silicate,- so that with. care in having. a sufficient quantity of basic additions present and I final additions sufficiently low in silicon a metal absolutely free from silicon will be produced. The proportion of basic additions required will vary with the amount of silicon present in the initial and final charge; but in ordinary practice the basic additions will not exceed twenty per cent. of the weight of metal, and when metal free from silicon is desired the silicon in the final additions should not exceed ninety (90) per cent. of the oxygen to be removed from the. metal. Thus if there be seventy (70) pounds of oxygen in the metal ninety per cent. of seventy is sixty-three. Therefore not more than sixty-three pounds of silicon should be in the final charge, which,

' if manganese be absent, will produce one hun- Y shapes which require tobewelded.

also be a superior article for stamping into dred and thirty-three pounds of SiO.,, and the resulting metal will be free from silicon.

The desiliconized ingot-iron produced in the practice of my invention by the use of a deoxygenizing agent which contains but little carbon will be an exceedingly soft homogeneous tough metal, especially adapted for the manufacture or pipes, tubes, chains, and all It will dishes, plates, trays, pans, buckets, and all articles of pressed ware. This metal also exhibits a finer an d more compact grain,free from spots, than any iron or steel known to me, and, as a consequence of 1 its greater ductility and finer surface, it is a superior article for the production of tin-plate, galvanized iron, and electro-metallurgical deposits. I also find that. by reason of the extra ductility and homogeneity it is a superior metal for the manufacture of wire, as it may be drawn a greater number of gages before annealing, and is less liable to break from defective spots than anyv iron or steel hitherto known. I

Ingot iron or steel low in carbon made by this process may be known by its fine homo-' geneous texture and its great ductility and toughness, and all grades of metal,of whatever the degree of carbon it contains, may readily be distinguished by its being absolutely free from silicon, or in any case containing not more than one-hundredth of one per cena (.010) of silicon.

I do not in this application claim a lime or basic lining, having already obtained a patent therefor, dated September 11, 1866, No. 57,969; nor do I herein claim the method of preparing and indurating calcareous or calcareous magnesian lining material, as I have a patent therefor, No. 249,548, November 15, 1881, and

have pending applications, Serial No. 28,274,

filed March 14, 1881, and Serial No. 52,778, filed February 15, 1882, covering said basic lining; nor do I now claim the method of purifying and dephosphorizing iron or steel by treating the molten metal to an air-blast while held in a basic-lined vessel and in presence of basic additions, two such processes having been already patented by me, June 19, 1883, 7 No. 279,596, and February 13, 1883, No.

27 2,07 5; nor do I here claim a lining formed of chalk or lime or oxide of iron, or a'combination of said substances; but

hat I do claim is- 1. The process of producing ingot iron and steel free from silicon, which consists in subjecting molten iron to the action of oxidizing agents while in a lime-lined vessel, and in the presence of a high temperature and basic additions, until the silicon,- carbon, and phosphorus are eliminated, then deoxygenating the metal with an agent which contains but little silicon, whereby themetal, previous to the final addition, being-free from silicon, the silicon in the final addition will unite with the oxides and pass into the slag as silicic acid, and the resulting metal will contain buta trace 5 of silicon, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. The process of producing ingot iron and steel free from silicon, which consists in desiliconizing molten iron in a basic-lined vessel and in the presence of basic additions at a temperature above thefusion-point of wrought- "iron, tlien deoxygenating the metal with an agent low in silicon, whereby the silicic acid formed by the oxidation of the silicon istaken up by and held in the basic additions as asilicate, and a metal free from silicon is produced, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

J AGOB REESE. Witnesses:

WVALTER REESE, JAMES H. PoRTE. 

